The Essentia Health Deer River Hospital & Clinic (Credit: Essentia Health)
Healthcare workers at Essentia Health in Deer River say an Unfair Labor Practices (ULP) strike could begin next week if a labor agreement is not reached by then.
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has sent Essentia Health a 10-day strike notice that it intends to initiative a work stoppage beginning at 7 a.m. on Monday, November 4th and have it run until 7 a.m. on Saturday, November 9th. The work stoppage would involve around 70 workers from the hospital and nursing home.
The union says in a press release that the two sides have been bargaining since August, yet remain distant on big issues like wages, the demand for additional PTO or shift bonuses, and ensuring that hospital workers get the same holiday pay that nursing home workers will now get as part of recent changes made by the Nursing Home Workforce Standards Board.
Essential Health released a statement today regarding the possible work stoppage as well. It says that Essentia and the union are negotiating a new three-year contract act after the previous one expired September 30th. Essentia says the union’s wage demand of a 55% increase over three years is not financially sustainable in today’s health care environment.
Essentia states that the strike notice comes “unusually early in the bargaining process” after only two negotiating sessions and with mediation scheduled for next month. They added that they feel the strike notice is “premature,” and they should instead focus on “making progress at the bargaining table.”
SEIU says there are currently no bargaining sessions scheduled before the strike would begin, but that “workers remain ready to get back to the table” with a mediation session scheduled for November 13. On Essentia’s part, they say with the already scheduled negotiation session, they are urging the union bargaining team to focus on making progress with them during bargaining rather than going out on strike.
Essentia says that in the event of a work stoppage, emergency services, surgical care, outpatient clinic care, and long-term care at Essentia Health-Homestead would remain available, but aspects of hospital inpatient services would be temporarily suspended during a work stoppage. That would include transferring some current hospital patients to other Essentia facilities and not accepting new patients for hospital admission.